Book Reviews: Clockwork Prince, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, Dead to the World

Goodreads Summary: In magical Victorian London, orphan Tessa found safety with the Shadowhunters, until traitors betray her to the Magister. He wants to marry her, but so do self-destructive Will and fiercely devoted Jem. Mage Magnus Bane returns to help them. Secrets to her parentage lie with the mist-shrouded Yorkshire Institute's aged manager Alyosius Starkweather.

Why I Read This Book: Another series I have gotten into, and was on 2 of my challenge lists: 2013 Paranormal Challenge, and the 2013 Sequel Challenge.

Review: I like the Infernal Devices more than The Mortal Instruments series, and this book didn't disappoint. I can't wait to see how it all ends with the Clockwork Princess, but I have been putting it off a bit so it won't be over too quickly.

Rating: 

Goodreads Summary: A mysterious island. An abandoned orphanage. And a strange collection of very curious photographs. It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. 

As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children who once lived here - one of whom was his own grandfather - were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a desolate island for good reason.

And somehow - impossible though it seems - they may still be alive.
Why I Read This Book: This was on my A-Z Book Challenge List.

Review: I really enjoyed this book a lot. It was the perfect amount of creepy mixed with intriguing and fantasy that it sucked me in. The plot was very interesting, with several twists and turns, and a bit of romance too. I brought this in to work and was reading on my lunch break, and everyone said it looked too creepy for them, because of the pictures. But really it wasn't overly, just enough to make it good.

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Goodreads Summary: In Sookie Stackhouse—a Southern cocktail waitress with a supernatural gift—Harris has a created a heroine like few others, and a series that puts the bite back in vampire fiction. Now the hit series launches into hardcover for Sookie's biggest twist-filled adventure yet.

When cocktail waitress Sookie Stackhouse sees a naked man on the side of the road, she doesn't just drive on by. Turns out the poor thing hasn't a clue who he is, but Sookie does. It's Eric the vampire—but now he's a kinder, gentler Eric. And a scared Eric, because whoever took his memory now wants his life.
Why I Read This Book: This book is again, one in a series I am reading. I joined a very specific Sookie Stackhouse Reading Challenge, and committed to reading 4 of this series, so this was my first for this year, but the 3rd in the series.

Review: This was a good middle-of-the-series book. So far the season of True Blood that matches up to this book has been my favorite, and I read the book after I watched that. It is pretty closely matched up, and I like this book a lot. It's probably my favorite of the books so far as well.

Rating: 

Club Dead (Southern Vampire #3) by Charlaine Harris

Goodreads Summary: Things between cocktail waitress Sookie and her vampire boyfriend Bill seem to be going excellently (apart from the small matter of him being undead) until he leaves town for a while. A long while. Bill's sinister boss Eric has an idea of where to find him, whisking her off to Jackson, Mississippi to mingle with the under-underworld at Club Dead. When she finally catches up with the errant vampire, he is in big trouble and caught in an act of serious betrayal. This raises serious doubts as to whether she should save him or start sharpening a few stakes of her own.


Why I Read This Book: Because I am working through this series.

Review: This was my favorite Sookie Stackhouse novel so far. I think the downfall of this series up to now was that I also watch True Blood, and suffice it to say, I like the show more. However, it has been awhile since I watched the shows that correspond to the story of this book, so I think that made me like it a bit more, because I wasn't really comparing the two, I was just enjoying the book. And I did like it, I like Alcide in this book, and Eric too. Bill was MIA for most of the book, as with the book you only get what Sookie is up to as it's told in the first person. I'm really glad I gave this series another shot, as I was almost ready to give up on them. Now I;m looking forward to reading the next one!


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Reading and Watching Wednesday

Hello all!
I'm sorry I missed last week. I was really good and wrote a post to come out on the Wednesday  I was away on vacation, but I didn't take into consideration that I got back on a Tuesday and was too exhausted to think about blogging for about a week. NYC will definitely do that to you, especially if you try to see EVERYTHING in 3 days like I did!

Anyway, I had a great time, but hopefully I can get back to business as usual. This week I will be comparing the book version against the television version of The Sookie Stackhouse Novels / True Blood in honor of the new season starting soon (who else is WAY excited?!)

Admittedly, I have only read the first 2 Sookie Stackhouse books, and have seen all 4 seasons of True Blood that have come out. When I read the first book, I had already started watching the show as well. When I started the book, the biggest shocks were Tara and Layfette considering book Tara was the polar opposite of show Tara, and without giving too much away, Layfette's story line goes a lot differently in the books. There is definitely some minor character differences as well, but they are less noticeable. And as always, the characters physical descriptions aren't completely accurate, but they are good enough in most cases. Book Sookie seems to be a more voluptuous Southern girl than Anna Paquin is capable of portraying, but she does a good job. 

Since, as I mentioned, I had watched the show first, and the book seemed to be playing true to the show for awhile, I found I kept waiting for things I new happened in the show to happen in the book, and this never did. I guess since the book is short, the TV show had some filler added to make a whole season.

For the second book and the second season, much of the story line has changed, and much like my review of the Vampire Diaries book vs show, I think that they are going to be completely different, and almost incomparable. For this reason, I think I will continue reading the books (otherwise I honestly think I would stop reading them).

Verdict: Show is definitely better than what I have read so far, but I'm going to keep giving the books an honest chance and maybe they will get just as good!

PS: I found this link and thought it was good too :)

http://www.tv.com/news/10-reasons-why-true-blood-is-better-than-the-books-its-based-on-26101/

Life Updates

So today was a pretty big day for me, it was the first day of school :) I started my MBA today! Yahoo! So in 3-4 short years I will have a few new letters after my name. This time next year I will also (hopefully) be starting my CMA (Certified Managerial Accountant - don't know if it's called the same thing outside of Canada) designation. I write the entrance exam for that in June, and will need to start studying in approx. April.... ugh.

Other than that I also had an interview for a part-time job I mentioned I was looking for awhile back. So hopefully I hear back from that soon - I need some extra $$$!!

I didn't get much reading done over the long weekend as I had anticipated. We decided to remodel our half bathroom which was in pretty rough shape. It was pretty interesting, we refinished the counter tops, changed the flooring, got a new faucet, and gave it a fresh coat of paint. I will post some pics later when I get them loaded on the computer.

I have however updated my Goodreads TBR list... I think its almost at 300! Lots to read. I'm almost done One Fifth by Candace Bushell too, so I can review that (and mention a few of her others as well) and I'm about a 1/4 way through the 2nd Sookie Stackhouse Novel by Charlaine Harris, but I'm going to wait to do a post about a few of them together.

Well, that's really all I have to say today, I'll leave you with this picture for the day:

I'm delightful and cute and so happy to be reading my book
- unlike Jessica who will have to cook and study school things, I have nothing else to do!